李肇·《唐国史补·婆媳棋局》英译

王积薪棋术功成，自谓天下无敌。将游京师，宿于逆旅。既灭烛，闻主人媪隔壁呼其妇曰：“良夜难遣，可棋一局乎？”妇曰：“诺。”曰：“第几道下子矣！”妇曰：“第几道下子矣！”各言数十。媪曰：“尔败矣！”妇曰：“伏局。”积薪暗记。明日覆其势，意思皆所不及也。                                     

——李肇《唐国史补》

A Game of Chess Between Mother-in-law and Daughter-in-law

Wang Jixin, who was a wizard at playing Chinese chess, considered himself unmatched in the world. When journeying to the capital(Chang’an), he put up at an inn on the way. Extinguishing the candle at night, he went to bed and subsequently heard that next door the innkeeper was having a chat with her daughter-in-law in their respective rooms separated by a partition.

“What a nice night!” Said the mother-in-law,” What do you think of passing the time by playing a game of chess?”

“All right,” the daughter-in-law replied.

“I have placed a chesspiece on such and such a line of the chessboard,” called out the old lady.

“And I have placed a piece on such and such a line of the board too,” replied the young woman. Both kept on playing by calling out in this way. After some several ten turns, the old lady shouted,” you lost!”

“Yes, I concede defeat,” replied the young woman.

Wang secretly memorized the moves to this game of chess by heart: The following day when he replayed the offensive and defensive moves to that game of chess in the exact sane way as the innkeeper and her daughter-in-law had done the previous night, he found every one of their moves to be wonderful and profound, far beyond his won skill.